North Carolina judge rules public school athletes can profit from NIL

A North Carolina judge ruled Tuesday that public school athletes in the state can profit from NIL.

The ruling stems from the lawsuit the mother of Class of 2026 Tennessee five-star quarterback commit Faizon Brandon brought against the North Carolina Board of Education and Department of Public Instruction. Wake County Superior Court Judge Graham Shirley made his ruling Tuesday.

Currently 39 states – through laws or local athletic associations – allow athletes to participate in NIL deals without forfeiting the ability to play high school sports. North Carolina remains one of the 11 that does not allow high schoolers to capitalize on NIL. That will now change.

Shirley ruled the state board of education’s proposed NIL rule, which was for the 2025-26 season, will be put in place now. A written order needs to be signed before going into effect.

“We’re pretty excited about this,” Mike Ingersoll, the attorney for the Brandon family, told WRAL TV.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association Board of Directors approved a proposal in May 2023 that would’ve brought NIL rights to North Carolina public high school student-athletes starting on July 1, 2023. But North Carolina politicians shut the measure down barely a day later with legislation that eventually stripped the state association of much of its power and threatened its very existence.

But private school athletes in North Carolina can profit off NIL. The top North Carolina prospect in the 2025 class, David Sanders Jr., attends Providence Day School, a private school. He’s already signed NIL representation with WME. 

Over the last six months, top high school football prospects have inked exclusive, multi-year deals with Leaf Trading Cards. At least six of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming 2025, 2026 and 2027 classes have inked NIL deals with the company. That doesn’t include Florida freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, who signed with Leaf shortly after enrolling.

Faizon Brandon did not have that opportunity. On April 30, the quarterback was presented with the “life-changing” deal that would have paid him and his family “a substantial sum of money.”

That has now changed with Tuesday’s ruling in North Carolina’s Wake County Court.